How to Get Cheap Tickets to Broadway Shows (Even ‘Hamilton’)

Finding cheap tickets to a show has never been easier. From lotteries to apps, we’ve put together a guide to scoring tickets without breaking the bank. “Hamilton” included.

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Lin-Manuel Miranda addressed the crowd waiting for the “Hamilton” lottery to be drawn outside the Richard Rodgers Theater in 2015.Credit
Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Lotteries

The idea behind a lottery is simple: you submit your name and cross your fingers that it gets drawn. There are two types of lotteries: in-person and digital. For in-person lotteries, you show up about two hours before the start of the show and put your name in a bucket. When names are drawn, you need to be present to claim your seats. Digital lotteries are offered by shows themselves or via an app, like TodayTix. A digital lottery is your best chance to see “Hamilton” for cheap, as in $10 tickets kind of cheap. And your chances to see “Hamilton” just got better: the show recently began offering double the number of $10 seats for each performance. Show-score.com keeps an updated list of digital lotteries, and we’ve got a guide to the best ways to navigate them.

Apps

Cheap seats are a touch away with mobile ticketing apps. The most prominent is TodayTix, which offers discounted and full-price last-minute tickets. After you purchase your tickets using the app, agents dressed in branded red outside the theater doors deliver them in person. TodayTix sells tickets only within a week of a performance date, and there are fees to watch for. (Keep in mind, too, that not every show in New York is offered, and you don’t always know exactly which seats you’ll get.) Besides New York, TodayTix sells tickets in other markets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, the Bay Area, Washington and London.

Outside the TKTS booth in Times Square.Credit
Yana Paskova for The New York Times

TKTS

If you have flexibility when it comes to when and where you can see a show, check out one of the city’s four TKTS booths. (The most famous, in Times Square, was renovated in 2008 with a sweeping row of red glass steps; the newest is at Lincoln Center.) Run by the Theater Development Fund, a nonprofit performing arts service organization, TKTS offers discounted — usually half price — same-day and next-day tickets to many Broadway and Off Broadway shows. There’s a separate line just for plays at the Times Square location. You can forget megahits like “Hamilton” and “Wicked”: they’re just too hot for TKTS. If you want to know what’s being offered, you can browse real-time listings online, or check them out with the TKTS app. Each location offers different ticket options, so make sure to find out which location suits your needs. There are rarely lines or waits at the satellite TKTS booths. You can also get discounted tickets by joining TDF, which offers them to union members, teachers, retirees, members of the armed forces and other select groups.

A scene from the musical “School of Rock.”Credit
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Rush and SRO Tickets

Rush seats are offered on the day of a performance and are generally for students with valid identification. SRO (standing room only) seats are at the back of the theater, and are usually available only if a show is sold out. Playbill.com has a regularly updated list of shows on Broadway, like “School of Rock” and “Chicago,” and Off Broadway that offer both kinds of seats, available at the theater’s box office. Again, Show-Score offers a great guide to rush ticket policies. Not a student? BroadwayBox.com is one of several websites that offer discount codes that you can use to purchase tickets online.

‘Papering’ Services

It’s a little-known secret outside of the theater community, but when some theaters have unsold tickets, they’ll look to fill — or “paper” — the house by offering those tickets for cheap. Two of the most widely known papering services are Audience Extras and Play by Play. Once you buy a membership — it costs a little over $100 for a person to join Play by Play — you can go online and get deeply discounted and sometimes free tickets to shows the day of a performance or sometimes before. Occasionally the shows are on Broadway, but usually they are Off or Off Off.

Become a Playwright

More than 40 theaters around the country allow student and professional writers who belong to the Dramatists Guild, a national association of about 7,000 playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists, to get unsold tickets for free on the day of a performance. Yes, free. Each theater has its own guidelines about how to get tickets. More information on the program, called Playwrights Welcome and administered by the Guild and the Samuel French, is here.